[conspire] (forw) [GoLugTech] GoLUG leadership: was Linux users protested at Microsoft?

[Rick Moen]

Very articulat, so I thought I'd pass it along.  ('This event' refers to
the largest Windows Refund Day event, the one I and others ran in Foster
City on Presidents' Day, 1998.)

----- Forwarded message from Steve Litt via Tech <tech at golug.org> -----

Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2019 16:06:19 -0500
From: Steve Litt via Tech <tech at golug.org>
To: tech at golug.org
Subject: [GoLugTech] GoLUG leadership: was Linux users protested at
	Microsoft?
X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.17.3 (GTK+ 2.24.32; x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
Reply-To: Steve Litt <slitt at troubleshooters.com>, tech at golug.org

On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 14:45:00 -0500
Robert Lefebvre via Tech <tech at golug.org> wrote:

> I wasn't aware of this event?
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j9j-Ywjmbk

Robert, thanks for the perfect lead-in as to why I'll soon be giving up
the leadership reins at GoLUG...

I did my first Linux installation and immediately joined ELUG about 4
months before the referenced event, Windows Refund Day. If you look at
the video you see the enthusiasm exhibited by Linux people in that era.
Linux wasn't just an OS. It wasn't just another work skill or tool we
used at work. Nor was it just the OS we chose for our personal desktop.

Linux got us out from under the thumb of Microsoft, which was a pretty
cool company in 1989, but steadily degraded until it was a despicable
piece of unmitigated weasel dung by 1999. Many of the people you see in
that video were forced, by the marketplace, to use Windows. When an
alternative came along, we busted free, and when we saw how well an OS
could really work, we were royally perturbed at Microsoft for how
Windows made us do more work to get less productivity.

And don't forget, by the mid 1990's Microsoft was suing its own
customers for "copyright infringement" when some employee in the mail
room unauthorizedly copied Windows to another computer without
obtaining a license. Linux gave such companies a way to break all ties
with Microsoft. See
https://www.cnet.com/news/rockin-on-without-microsoft/ for the iconic
example.

And the Justice Department's Microsoft Antitrust trial kept moving
forward, giving us all more reason to bring Linux to the forefront. By
2000 the average old man owning stocks knew about Linux because of Red
Hat's and VA Linux's stock IPOs. On June 7, 2000, Judge Jackson ruled
that Microsoft must be broken up into an OS unit and an "other
software" unit, which would have essentially nullified Microsoft's
(monopolous) advantages in the marketplace.

Meanwhile, the 1997-2000 economy was red-hot, especially for anyone in
computer programming or administration. Y2K consumed all the
programmers, and thousands of dialup ISPs competed for business, every
one of them using Linux or BSD. In this period of time, if you wanted a
Linux job, you could get it, no sweat. If you worked Windows, it was
because you didn't mind working that putrid piece of monopolism, not
because you had no choice.

=================================================================== 
                       WHAT ABOUT BSD?

Of course, before the 1993 invention of Linux, BSD had been loadable on
AT-Compatible computers for years, so it could be said that Linux
brought nothing new to the table. But the fact is, BSD never achieved
the mindset to spread use of their technology. Linux users tended to be
evangelical: BSD users were quite the opposite.

===================================================================

You should have seen the 20th century ELUG meetings. Meetings, not
Installfests. Half the attendees "brought their box", meaning a desktop
computer with separate keyboard, monitor, and often speakers, all
running Linux. My first ELUG meeting, a guy named Mach Stormrunner
hefted a 3'x2.5'x1' monstrosity with components hanging out on wires,
whipped out a Linux install disk,  and had the thing installed and
running before the 2 hour meeting ended. Another time Mach's buddy
moved a ceiling tile, pulled a phone wire into the room, connected it
to a hub, and gave us all Internet access for the night.

We had skin in the game. It took time to prepare to bring an entire
desktop to a meeting. It was a rare meeting when attendance dipped
below 25, and we were all crammed in a tiny classroom.

IMHO things only got better when ELUG kinda-sorta became LEAP, because
now we had five-hour monthly Installfests and a much bigger meeting
room. It was common to have 40 people at the meetings. Not bad for the
technological desert Orlando was in the early oughts.

In late 2000, one Supreme Court justice decided who would be president,
and that president was from a party with a lot more tolerance for
monopolies. Within months, the new administration's justice department
offered Microsoft a way out with slap on the wrist, and Microsoft never
got busted up.

2002

2002 was a pivotal year for many reasons. Enron bankrupted 12/3/2001.
Worldcom filed Chapter 11 on 7/21/2002. The dot-com boom had long since
departed. The September 11. 2001 terrorism chilled the US economy. 2002
and 2003 comprised a horrible recession, especially for those making
their money with computers. Former highly paid programmers were flipping
burgers. 

By the time the economy started easing in 2004, most IT people were
suitably chastened and would take any decent paying IT job that came
their way. People who needed to be in the workforce viewed Linux as a
tool, not a revolution or a way of life. Also, laptops got cheaper so
very few brought desktops to LUG meetings. And then it got to the point
where desktops weren't even very welcome at a Linux meeting. Hacking
slowed.

After only 4 years of economic good times, things went bad again in
2008. I think everybody remembers the Great Recession.

2013 brought back good times to IT people, **if** they'd kept up with
technology, and if they weren't subject to age discrimination. The
leading edge of the Boomers retired or changed careers rather than
keeping up the fight. GenXers, the people who brought the Web to the
masses, struggled. Millennials had a field day: The tech they just
learned at college or boot camp or hacking was exactly what companies
were paying the big bucks for.

Here's the thing. Millennials were somewhere between preschool and high
school during the Linux revolution showcased by Robert's video. Their
alliance is to Node.js, React, Vue.js, and Wordpress, not to Linux. OS
is an afterthought to them.

GenX was right in the thick of the Linux Revolution, but today they're
between 40 and 54, which probably puts them right in that life stage
where they need to prioritize money for kids' college, recouping
savings from kids' college, elder parent care, medical expenses, saving
for retirement, and just generally catching up. They can no longer
afford to prioritize OS, and probably their long career through two
brutal recessions long ago took them away from Linux.

This leaves the Boomers, from late 50's to early 70's, many of whom are
starting to work less hours and be more choosy about what work they
take. Like GenX, they were deeply involved in the Linux generation, and
unlike GenX or Millennials, the concept of "protest" runs deep in their
veins. Boomers are pretty much who inhabits GoLUG meetings today.

ABOUT ME:
When it comes to Linux, I'm still a True Believer. I still look at
Linux as a democraciser, enabling anyone with a cast-off computer to
program, draw, film, write, or make music. I see Linux as a lab with
which to learn any IT skill worth learning. I see Linux as upward
social mobility. When I come to a LUG meeting I'm still proud to be in
with the in crowd. I know Linux is the best, and when I have a problem
that needs solving, my knowledge of Linux enables me to solve it, even
if my solution might be looked on as a "kludge" by others.

ABOUT OTHERS:
To most people in 2019, Linux is an operating system. A very good
operating system, but just an operating system. A tool that can, but in
many cases doesn't have to be, used to complete their projects. They
don't want to become better at Linux so much as they want to know how
to use the tool called Linux to accomplish their goals.

I can't lead such people, because their beliefs significantly diverge
from mine. I understand the reason I think the way I do, I understand
the reason they think the way they do, and its doubtful I'll convert
them or they'll convert me. They need a leader who thinks the way they
do.


SteveT
-- 
Steve Litt 
January 2019 featured book: Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
http://www.troubleshooters.com/tjust

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